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2015 Nagoya Post-basho Report
We've already discussed Sekiwake Tochiohzan at length,
and the bottom line with Oh is that he can win the most bouts consistently among
the Japanese rikishi with the least amount of yaocho. It's really as simple as
that. We also saw for the second time in a few years just how badly Tochiohzan
chokes when there's any sort of pressure. In fact, after the tournament I'm
pretty sure I read somewhere that French golfer Jean van de Velde said, "For the
first time in 16 years, I don't feel so bad anymore." At 28, Tochiohzan maybe
has two more years in him to end the Japanese yusho drought, but he's got to get
way more mentally tough. As I mentioned on one of the days, the dude should
focus on Ozeki promotion first and the yusho later. I mean, he shoulda finished
with 12 wins easily, but he choked his way down to 10, and no one has any
momentum in an Ozeki run when they start with just 10 wins. Man, the Japanese
rikishi just can't get a break.
Sekiwake Ichinojo looked awful finishing 4-11, but I'm simply not buying it.
There are a lot of oddities in sumo these days, and as I stated in my daily
reports, I think the Mongolith has gone mukiryoku so as to not make it five
Mongolians at the top of the banzuke. To the Japanese fans, Terunofuji literally
came out of nowhere and accomplished two feats that Japanese rikishi haven't
been able to do in nearly 10 years: receive legitimate promotion to Ozeki and
take the yusho. Okay, Hakuho helped out a bit in getting Terunofuji to that
point, but he's been more than cooperative with the Japanese Ozeki for years. I
just don't think they're going to allow five Mongolians in the top five ranks of
the charts, and so expect the slug to flounder until there's some shake-up in
the sumo landscape.
Komusubi Takarafuji had a similar basho to Ichinojo despite some hype
surrounding the new Komusubi prior to the basho. I have no explanation as to why
Takarafuji looked so awful. Up until this point, he's been one of the more
potent belt guys in the division, but this basho I can't recall a single bout
where he actually stuck at the belt of his opponent from the tachi-ai. Sometimes
I wonder if his oyakata uses him as a pawn at times and it messes with the
youngster a bit. Remember the one foreigner per stable rule? I do think that
Isegahama-oyakata feels a bit guilty about having a Mongolian Yokozuna and a
Mongolian Ozeki from his stable. Isegahama backed into two foreigners when they
asked him to absorb the Magaki-beya, who recruited Terunofuji, but nobody saw
this coming with the new Ozeki, and so I think Isegahama feels a little bit
guilty and goes into "o-kaeshi" mode by sometimes having Takarafuji go mukiryoku
in certain bouts. I don't know that it was necessarily the case this basho, but
Ozeki wins are more important than Takarafuji wins right now, and so something
could be screwy in this guy's head.
And speaking of getting screwy in the head, I've speculated at times that I
think when rikishi have bouts thrown in their favor that it breaks them down a
bit mentally because they don't know what to expect going into their bouts each
day. Perhaps that was applicable with Tochiohzan this basho. You could just see
it on his face that he knew he didn't deserve those two wins over the Yokozuna,
and look what happened immediately afterwards. In one sense, it breaks down
your concentration and preparation because you go from thoroughly game planning
for your opponent to a sense of "will he or won't he?" I don't think it's
something these guys ask for; rather, it's just the circumstance they find
themselves in due to politics in sumo and a push for parity.
Perhaps the most intriguing rikishi this basho was Komusubi Myogiryu. A rough
first week schedule characteristic of a Komusubi left him at 2-5, but dude
flexed his muscles the rest of the way managing to pick up kachi-koshi while
even dropping a bout to Kisenosato on day 12. At one point during the broadcast,
the NHK Announcer stated that they'd really like to see Myogiryu challenge for
the Ozeki rank, and so don't be surprised if some emphasis is put on the
Komusubi starting next basho. With Ichinojo's demotion from Sekiwake, Myogiryu
will slide into that rank, and so you'll have Tochiohzan and Myogiryu filling
out the Sekiwake ranks for Aki. I think this is the beginning of a push to get
two fresh Ozeki promoted while Kotoshogiku retires and Terunofuji leaves for the
Yokozuna ranks. Of all the Japanese rikishi on the banzuke, I think Myogiryu has
the most hunger, so the dude needs to stay healthy and continue to demand the
upper hand from the tachi-ai as he did against Tochinoshin on day 11.
M1 Tochinoshin is a beast, and I was happy to see him get kachi-koshi although
it's rather meaningless. The Ozeki rank is just not in the cards for this guy
even though he's the most worthy candidate of anyone right now ranked Sekiwake
and below. Look, the drill for Tochinoshin and the other Caucasian foreigners
right now is to stay in the jo'i, look strong, and then let the Japanese guys
upset them for key wins. You just watch the content of Tochinoshin's sumo, and
it's so much better than anyone else ranked lower than Terunofuji. It's a shame
that Tochinoshin, Kaisei, and Aoiyama don't go all out, but I get it.
M1 Sadanoumi was a bit lackluster this basho, but let's face it, he's still a
ways a way from scoring kachi-koshi from this rank. There is just too much beef
and too many other rikishi who take priority.
M2 Takayasu had an interesting basho finishing 6-9. All of his wins came against
make-koshi rikishi save two: Goeido and Kotoshogiku. If I remember right, he
henka'd Kotoshogiku, but I think guys do that out of mercy. It's easier to save
face when you lose via a henka then just totally getting your ass kicked. Ask
Goeido after day 1 when Takayasu laid the wood to him. Takayasu was actually a
good barometer for measuring the true strength of the Japanese Ozeki. They
couldn't really touch him, and Takayasu really couldn't have success against the
kachi-koshi rikishi from the jo'i.
Ditto my Tochinoshin comments for M2 Aoiyama and M3 Kaisei. If I had to rank
those three at the moment it'd be Tochinoshin, Kaisei, and then Aoiyama, but all
of them run circles around the Ozeki.
Let's move down to the M5 rank where Okinoumi posted a great 11-4 record.
Problem was, it was just outside of the jo'i and so he really didn't have that
marquee win. I guess he did beat Sekiwake Tochiohzan on day 12, but that was
more a matter of Tochiohzan's choke job down the stretch. The reason why you
can't get totally geeked about an 11-4 finish from M5 is because Okinoumi is
going to get his ass kicked from the sanyaku next basho.
Across the way, Tokushoryu came up just short at 7-8. I think the dude is close
to threatening a sanyaku rank within the next year, but he's got to focus on
using his size and belt skills to do it. Seems like he gets anxious and starts
to rely more on pull sumo as the basho goes along.
The M8 rank proved solid with Yoshikaze in the East and Osunaarashi in the West
posting a total of 23 wins between them. Like Okinoumi, their performances were
overshadowed by Tochiohzan's great run to start the basho, and by the time Oh
fizzled out, we already knew the yusho was coming down to the Yokozuna, and so
these two received little run throughout. The records will vault both of these
guys up into the jo'i, but the bottom line is that Osunaarashi can survive those
parts while Yoshikaze will not. Still, there's no reason to believe that
Osunaarashi will be allowed to surpass the other foreigners up in the jo'i
already mentioned.
M10 Amuuru is starting to grow on me more and more, but his basho ended on a
sour note with an 0-4 finish. Thing was, the Russian had such a great start that
they paired him against rikishi with game down the stretch, and he just couldn't
solve the veterans. Amuuru's best wins were against Osunaarashi and Chiyotairyu
on consecutive days mid-basho. I actually think it's good that Amuuru will only
slightly move up the banzuke for next basho. He really doesn't want to be thrown
to the fire before he's ready.
M11
Kyokutenho called it quits after his 3-12 record guaranteed him demotion to the
Juryo ranks. You could just see early on that Tenho had no legs, and worse than
that, he couldn't execute a counter move to save his life. During the basho,
they showed a clip of when Kyokutenho was seventeen and brand new to sumo. It's
pretty sweet to see him here alongside Kyokushuzan, a rikishi long gone from
sumo, but that just speaks to the longevity of Kyokutenho's career. Kyokutenho
was a rikishi similar to Kotonowaka. They had great sumo bodies, and they seemed
content throughout their careers to just hang around the rank and file. The two
rarely suffered injuries and were thus able to fight later than most rikishi.
Who knows how long Kotonowaka would have gone if his stable master didn't retire
forcing Kotonowaka to retire as an active rikishi and take over the
Sadogatake-beya?
Alice Cooper came through SLC the other day with Mötley Crüe, and I was able to
see Alice live for the first time thanks to Kane's hooking my brothers and I up
solid. Kane and I were kind of laughing afterwards about how comparable Alice's
stage show is to yaocho in some ways. Alice has put together a pretty sweet
repertoire of songs over the years and his setlist the night of the show was
nails, but he really built his reputation early on with all of those stage
gimmicks. The reason I bring this up now is because it's time to talk about M12
Endoh, who finished the Nagoya basho 10-5. In the case of Alice Cooper, we all
know it's for show, but in the case of Endoh, they're trying to mask the
gimmicks as much as possible and pass them off as real. I actually thought a lot
of Endoh's wins were legit this basho, but he's just another Goeido...a rikishi
that can be hyped in the media, but a rikishi who can make zero impact among the
jo'i. Before we move on, let me just say that Alice is about as genuine of a guy
as there is. He had nothing but great things to say about his days with Kane,
and I never tire hearing about those great rock stories from days gone by. It's
kind of like sumo when you think about it. The glory days are gone just as the
glory days of rock n' roll will never return unfortunately, but we still have
our memories don't we?
M13 Hidenoumi gets a pass from me this basho. I love his win against Kotoyuki on
day 1; I thought he gave the win to Endoh on day 2; and then he came back solid
beating Satoyama on day 3. Somewhere during that process, the dude injured his
lower back and was never the same. About eight years ago, I was playing my
brother in tennis when he hit a drop shot on me. I'm still not sure how it
happened, but as I rushed the ball near the net and put on the brakes, I threw
out my lower back, and it's never been the same. I can just tell by the way the
rookie moved that he wasn't all there, so let's wait for him to get healthy and
give it another shot.
I loved to see M13 Chiyotairyu look strong in the division again. Unfortunately,
an injury derailed him the last few days of the basho, but he already had
kachi-koshi in hand. I long for the day when Chiyotairyu will give us a complete
basho without a single pull attempt.
Let's end with our other rookie M15 Seiro, a rikishi who really didn't impress.
Like Endoh, this dude would thrive in a middle weight division, but he's going
nowhere in Makuuchi. He actually resembles Kagamioh a bit, a rikishi who somehow
jumped out to a big start but was exposed down the stretch ending 9-6.
As we look ahead to September, the two major storylines are going to be "what do
we do with the four Mongolians?" and "whose going to be the Japanese rikishi who
steps up and flirts with the yusho?"